Thought did occur that if Standard & Poor was a sovereign entity, their action could be construed as causis beli by the United States of America. Apparently they did not approve of the decision of the political system. (Lobbying can only get you so far you know ... )
That said, playing chicken with the debt-ceiling is probably as good a reason for a down-grade if any. Not that S&P has a good track record. At any rate, I plan to buy some stocks today. Emotional drops in the market are a gift.
Political theatre, in my book. The goal is to take down the "hyper-power" by a notch or two and re-order the "international community". This is just for our entertainment. The writing is on the wall: USA is to be hyper-power no more. For example, that threatened lowering of the "the only democracy" in the middle east is designed to push them to choose the war option. S&P had no ["French" deleted] issues with fiscal responsibility when handing out AAA ratings to WallStreet junk: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-13/moody-s-s-p-caved-t... But they go ahead and actually lower the rating of the global reserve currency and USA. Same USA that bailed out the sorry asses of the AAA rated junksters. There is a saying in Persian: "If there is a donkey around, someone is sure to ride it". http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/05/news/05iht-france.t_0.html /adieu/